Night Life
by Chibi Seishirou
Summary: Subaru meets a strange girl on his way home one dawn...


**Night Life**  
  
  
01-14-01  
9:30PM  
Audrey is writing.  
------  
  
It was nearing dawn.  
  
Sumeragi Subaru was running down the streets of Tokyo. If his sister found out he had been out so late for work, she would have a fit, which was something he would rather not have happen. He felt his heart beating faster in his chest with every quick motion. If he could just get to the apartment before she woke up.  
  
He was not sure why he was so zealous about his work. After a bout of soul searching, he had come to the conclusion that his strange devotion, a devotion that would often find him running out in the middle of the night, came solely from his desire to help others. It came solely from the warm feeling he got at the look of relief on his clients faces as he banished their problem into the world above or below, and the warm thankful smile they offered to him afterwards. Perhaps, this is how it worked.  
  
It was then that he saw her as he ran, heart pumping in his chest, face flushing from intense physical exertion. A girl, not older than he, in fact, younger than he, with a look of distress to bring the tower of Babel to ruins again, were it to be raised.  
  
In a matter of moments, he found himself slowing from his run to a quick walk by her, feeling tempted to stop, to ask the poor dear what was wrong, and how he could help. He had a quick mental debate, in which he stopped, then started, then stopped, making an oddly paced walk that would have been stared upon had it been the light of day, and found himself turning, only to see her still looking as panicked, as absolutely scared as she had been just a moment before. She looked as though she was not sure whether to cross the street, or to stay put. As he saw this now, he faintly thought that perhaps she was lost, and a simple point of the finger in the correct direction might bring one of those thankful smiles to her lips.   
  
He walked slow now, approaching her cautiously, not wanting to scare her. He watched as she put one foot into the street, and then retreated it back, shook her head, peered up at the sky, paced, and did it again, the whole time a look of utter terror gracing her unusually pale features. One would think that death itself was waiting for her choice.  
  
He could see her more clearly now, under the pale yellow-orange glow of the streetlamp. She was indeed a pale creature, with long, dark brown hair that added to her death-like appearance. He could not make out the color of her eyes, but they had a glow to them in the light, which meant they were most likely pale. Pale skin, dark hair, pale eyes, dark clothing. She had the face of a statue, under pain of the chisel. Yes, that is how perfect and how terrorized it was.   
  
She was pacing now, her jewelry make a gentle clanking sound with each step, and she hardly seemed to notice the Sumeragi standing now only a few feet away from her. He reached his hand out to touch her shoulder lightly, not knowing what else he could do to possibly get her attention.  
  
And she jumped back, both of her small feet landing in the street behind her, and the hurrying themselves back on to the safety of the sidewalk. Now, as he stood looking upon her up close, her features contorted into and even more disturbing picture than they had portrayed just a moment before. She was young, perhaps thirteen, and her eyes were indeed the palest shade of slate blue, he could see that clearly now. Oh, and how he had wished he could not, for her eyes simply added to the morbidly beautiful image that was this girl! They were surely not the eyes of a teenage girl, but the eyes of one who had lived to see much pain, and much death, more pain and death than should ever be able to exist in the small time frame the thirteen years truly was. He felt himself step back.  
  
Her voice was very calm, something that did not match her present state at all, as she asked him what he wanted with her. She wanted to know why he found her a suitable person to bother, when it was obvious to all she could not even help herself at this moment in time! Se began shifting her feet rather than pacing, waiting for his response. Subaru was not prepared for this sudden outburst created by his simple gesture of concern, which she had mistaken for something entirely different.. He mentally winced.  
  
"I wanted to help you. You looked like you could use help."  
  
She stopped shifting her feet now, wiping at her eyes with the long sleeve of her shirt. Perhaps she was crying. He could not be sure in the dim light. "Someone in Tokyo city, out before dawn...Has stopped to help me?" She looked as though she could not believe it for only a moment, before letting out a low laugh. Her laugh did not fit her. It fit her eyes, perhaps, but not her, for it seemed weathered over by pain as well.  
  
He felt weak under the bitter responses of this girl. "Yes..I mean, I..." He stumbled over his words the innocent way he often did under pressure. "You can't help me. What I need no boy like you could provide now, though your concern is truly dear." She went back now, to the simple yet sharp gesture of shifting her feet. Under her mask of what might be taken for anger, she was indeed still as terrorized as she had been moments ago, and this simple shifting of feet betrayed this emotion to him.   
  
"Let me know what is you need!" He blurted quickly, as is was obvious that she was growing impatient. Yes, dawn was definatly near, and the rising of the sun came the rising of Hokuto, who would of course be upset not to find him in his bedroom. Yet again his selfless nature led him into a situation that could have been avoided. He wondered behind his kind thoughts if, had he known what her reaction to his offering of help would be, would he have even bothered?   
  
"I need.." She began, her voice trailing off slowly. She was not stopping, no. She was searching her mind for what it was that she did indeed need now more than anything. Searching for the words, at least, so she could let him know these needs, "I need protection from the heavens." She said at last, continuing her gentle nervous motions of the feet.  
  
"You need...Protection from the heavens." Subaru repeated at last. "Tell me what that means." He then said in a voice that was not unkind.  
  
She looked up. "Dawn. I need to get away from this dawn, and be in the night again! I need...need more time!" She cursed under her breath, and for just a seconds time, forgot completely about the young man standing in front of her.  
  
He did not understand. He could not protect the morbid beauty in that way, he did not posses the power needed to turn back time to night, for if he did, he would be a god. He did not understand. What she had told him was not truly what she meant.  
  
"I see how you react." She said, cutting off his thoughts. "I see it in your eyes. Tell me, can you provide me a place of darkness to take me to night? Yes or no?"  
  
What did she want from him? What?  
  
He asked himself these questions. He would ask her to say what she wanted in a more simple way, he resolved. Before he could speak, however. he noticed her eyes turn up the sky again. The look of anger transformed once again into a look of distress.   
  
"No. No. No. You can't." She said to him, no in the mean sarcastic way in which she had talked to from the moment he laid his hand on hr shoulder, but in a hurried way. "I need to go."  
  
She turned to run, and Subaru found himself reaching out for her, not of his own will. His hand found her wrist, and held he in place for a moment, in which she used to turn facing him, with a very new expression. Not of anger. Not of distress. Of surprise. '  
  
Her skin was icy. He felt that now. It felt like ice, not the warm skin of a human being. Ice. He could feel the blood pumping in the large vein found on her wrist. Why did it feel like ice? Before he could stop himself, he had said it. "What are you?"  
  
"What am I? I am darkness. I am light. I am all that is cold and dead. No, not a spirit, not a simple spirit. I am a smile." And she then proceeded to do what she was. And he saw then. He saw her teeth, her fangs. Her small, sharp fangs.  
  
With a simple touch of her fingers to his wrist, his fingers uncoiled from around her, freeing her, as he stood there in the light of the streelamp. The pale, vampiric girl did not smile any longer. "Do you still wish to help me? Do you now understand what I meant by needing to be saved from dawn? You can't." And she back away a few steps. "Your innocence has saved you, your desire to help keeps you pumping with blood. So please, don't find yourself helping creatures like me!"   
  
"Don't say that..." He said, his eyes blurred, his head rushing with thoughts. "Don't..say.."  
  
What she thought of these words, she did not say. She simply nodded to him, mixed expressions messing up her perfect face. And before he could stop her, turned to run.  
  
Subaru wondered if she was safe from the sun, where she went, from the heavens, as she had put it, as he again found himself safe from the darkness.  
  
------  
01-14-01  
10:05PM  
Audrey is saving.


End file.
